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The successful tourism business which drives Okonjima today,
had small beginnings in 1986. This was the start of something much larger than anyone had ever imagined: tourists would stay for one night and were offered a basic lunch on arrival and walks in the veldt during the afternoon; the following morning, Rose, an avid birder who actively took part in the annual Bird Atlas Projects, would show guests the endemic Damara, Rock Runner and near-endemics such as the White-Tailed Shrike, Hartlaub’s Francolin and many more. Rose also excelled in the kitchen with farm cooking and herbal recipes (Rose was nationally known for her knowledge of medicinal & edible herbs); she made everyone feel that they had come 'home' for the holidays. . . Okonjima soon became a regular stop-over on the ‘Namib Wilderness
Safari’ route. This additional income allowed Val & Rose to build two bungalows in the garden (the present rooms 3 & 4)
in order to accommodate guests. The old hunter’s rooms (VJ’s
house) also provided accommodation but, on occasion, the family
still had to move out of their own bedrooms when the groups were
too large. He also decided to experiment with his Leopard baiting, as an activity for tourists. With little thought for safety, guests would sit on rock ledges under cover of darkness and wait for the leopards: although some nights were disappointing, mostly the leopard viewing was successful and this became a popular activity at Okonjima. Tourism continued to grow and Okonjima became increasingly popular. Rosalea and Donna, Wayne’s sisters, helped with the guest business during their university holidays and eventually both moved back to Okonjima permanently – Rosalea in 1992 and Donna during 1993.
This family-run guest farm, en-route to the Etosha National Park,
fast became a sought-after stop-over; the activities expanded from
birding and guided walking trails to include a 2½ hour
Bushman Trail; leopard viewing from a hide, the once considered
'pest', also became a popular tourist attraction. 2.2 Carnivores & Tourism on Okonjima In 1989, a cheetah cub named Chinga, came to live at Okonjima. Val Hanssen had attended an auction, organised to raise funds for a political party (DTA), just before Namibian Independence from South Africa. Amongst the chairs, tables, pots, pans, meat, eggs and 'biltong' was a cheetah cub in a cage. No one was interested in the cheetah cub and out of pity, Val bought her for R200-00 (N$). Initially, she was extremely wild, but slowly became used to people. Chinga was free to roam around the garden and the surrounding veldt, visible to the guests; little did we suspect that Chinga and our leopard-viewing were to lead us into an active role in carnivore conservation in Namibia … As word of Okonjima’s success with cheetah and leopard spread,
it wasn’t long before we were approached by a number of farmers,
to take on the cheetah & leopard that had been trapped on their
farms, in an effort to relieve livestock losses. By this time, hunting had ceased on Okonjima and our interests had turned to developing the guest farm, turning it into an active conservation project and a lodge. We were extremely short on manpower: Donna & Rosalea with Wayne and his new wife Lise Conradie, managed the lodge, cooked, helped clean the rooms, guided and entertained the guests. In addition to our already full schedule, we were rescuing distressed leopard and cheetah from all over Namibia. Cheetah and Leopard rescue was purely a welfare exercise, but this would lead to more ambitious carnivore projects in the future. Soon we were holding a large number of orphaned cheetah and leopard and were battling to house them all: this lead to our first fundraising venture, to fund the building of a large enclosure for some of the cheetah. As an answer to our call, guests Diane and Richard Reynolds-Hale offered their support and within a few months, a 25-hectare area had been fenced and de-bushed – this was the beginning of our Cheetah Project. Orphaned and wild cheetah and leopard continued to come in at an alarming rate: the cost of feeding them was covered by Okonjima Lodge. It was decided at this stage to take guests to visit the cheetahs so that they could learn more about these specialised predators; in turn, these captive cheetah generated so much interest, that their up-keep was supported by donations.
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